A rain affected third day saw Worcestershire lose ground in their Rothesay County Championship clash with Nottinghamshire, with the hosts hunting early wickets on day four to have any hopes of taking anything from the match.
Beginning the day 93-5, a cluster of lower order wickets saw the home side bowled out for 160, with only Gareth Roderick’s 37* able to withstand the impressive Notts seam bowling attack.
Chasing a target of 136 to win the game, Tom Taylor reduced the Outlaws to 0-1 when he bowled Haseeb Hameed for nought to spark some hope heading into the evening.
Rain interruptions and bad light saw play suspended late on with Notts closing 40-1, 96 runs shy of their winning total heading into the final day.
Resuming day three on 93-5, grey skies and gloomy overheads greeted Gareth Roderick and Ethan Brookes, who took to the middle looking to apply themselves in the same resolute manner that had seen the pair navigate a challenging spell late last night.
During a thorough early examination, both Roderick and Brookes were forced into to see their way through an attritional phase of the game, with Worcestershire edging past 100 inside the first hour.
As the morning session progressed, the pair began to rotate strike with more fluency, with both batters enjoying building Worcestershire’s most promising partnership of the innings.
The defiant rearguard lasted 26 overs, before Brookes was caught out after miscuing an innocuous away swinging ball straight to the sub fielder at extra-cover after a dogged 77 ball stay at the crease, with the Pears floundering at 120-6.
Matthew Waite was pinned LBW with the first ball he faced as the Outlaws tightened their grip on proceedings, with any hopes of Worcestershire carrying a meaningful second innings lead resting with the not-out Roderick.
Those hopes faded fast when Tom Taylor was trapped LBW in cruel fashion courtesy of a Pennington ball that surprised the batter and stayed low after he had added 11, before Josh Tongue claimed his fourth wicket of the innings when he had Ben Allison caught at first-slip in the 61st over of the innings.
Roderick was left stranded at the non-strikers end on 37* when the innings was abruptly ended by Lyndon James, who secured an impressive five wicket haul with the dismissal of Khurram Shahzad, with Worcestershire bowled out for 160, setting Notts 136 to win in the final innings of the contest.
The scheduled afternoon session was hampered by the unsavoury and inclement overhead conditions, with bad light and intermittent showers meaning only six overs were possible between the lunch and tea, which was taken at 3:45pm.
Despite the stop-start nature of the day, hosts were able to make a breakthrough early on, when Tom Taylor collected his 48th Division One wicket of the season as he bowled Haseeb Hameed for only his second pair of his career.
Play eventually resumed shortly after 4pm, with Freddie McCann and Ben Slater surviving multiple mini-sessions as the players dodged the worsening conditions, but the lack of light and heavy rainfall eventually proved terminal and play was eventually abandoned at shortly after 5:30pm, with the visitors requiring 96 to win with nine-wickets in hand.
